Social Impacts of Cyber Crime

Abstract

Cyber criminals take full advantage of the anonymity, secrecy, and interconnectedness provided by the Internet, therefore attacking the very foundations of the modern information society. Cyber crime can involve botnets, computer viruses, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, cyberterrorism, cyberpornography, Denial of Service attacks, hacktivism, identity theft, malware, and spam. Law enforcement officials have struggled to keep pace with cyber criminals, who cost the global economy billions annually. Police are attempting to use the same tools cyber criminals use to perpetrate crimes to prevent those crimes and bring the guilty parties to justice. This essay begins by defining cyber crime and then moves to a discussion of its economic and social impacts. It continues with detailed excursions into cyberbullying and cyberpornography, two especially representative examples of cyber crime, and concludes with a discussion of ways to curtail the spread of cyber crime.

Overview

Computer-related crime dates to the origins of computing. Nonetheless, greater connectivity between computers through the Internet has brought the concept of cybercrime into the public consciousness.

In 1995, when the World Wide Web was in its early stages of development, futurist Dr. Gene Stephens wrote about the present and future reality of cyber crime and made several predictions: "Billions of dollars in losses have already been discovered. Billions more have gone undetected. Trillions will be stolen, most without detection, by the emerging master criminal of the twenty-first century—the cyberspace offender" (Stephens, 1995, p. 24).

Reflecting on his predictions in a 2008 article, Stephens noted that he and others foresaw much of the cyber crime to come:

I correctly forecast an explosion of cellular phone time theft and phone fraud; increased cyberattacks and fraud against government and business; massive credit card theft and fraud; internal theft of clients' identities by financially struggling and/or greedy financial service employees; more cyberporn, cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and cyber vengeance; and the use of biometrics and encryption as methods of protecting data in cyber space (Stephens, 2008, p. 33).

Defining Cyber Crime. Cyber crime, as distinguished from computer crime, is an umbrella term for the various crimes committed using the World Wide Web, such as:

• The theft of one's personal identity (identity theft) or financial resources;
• The spread of malicious software code such as computer viruses;
• The use of others' computers to send spam email messages (botnets);
• Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on computer networks or websites by the hacker;
• Hacktivism, or attacking the computer servers of those organizations felt by the hacker to be unsavory or ethically dubious;
• Cyberstalking, by which sexual predators use Internet chat rooms, social networking sites, and other online venues to find and harass their victims;
• Cyberbullying, where individuals are harassed by others, causing severe mental anguish;
• Cyberpornography, the use of the Internet to spread child and adult pornography;
• Internet gambling and software piracy; and
• Cyberterrorism, the use of the Internet to stage intentional, wide-spread attacks that disrupt computer networks; using the Internet to spread violent messages, recruit terrorists, and plan attacks.

Cyber crime can be divided into four sub-categories:

• Cyber-trespass (hacktivism, viruses, Denial of Service attacks)
• Cyber-deceptions (identity theft, fraud, piracy)
• Cyber-pornography
• Cyber-violence (cyberbullying, cyberstalking)

(based on Wall, 2001, p. 3–7, cited in Yar, 2006, p. 10).

Several of these activities have a long history that predates the Internet, and they also have technological antecedents. "Some of the nineteenth-century wire frauds perpetrated by tapping into the early electric telegraph systems, for example, bear an uncanny resemblance to modern day hacks" (Wall, 2007, p. 2).

Media reports since the 1990s have documented the many methods by which criminals have used the Internet to commit crimes. Cyberthieves have become skilled at using the anonymity and secrecy of the Internet to defraud their victims of their money, their peace of mind, and indeed even their lives. When victims let their guard down by muting a healthy skepticism and caution, cyber crime takes place. As one FBI spokeswoman noted, "The scammer tries to prey on victims who are kind of in tune with what's going on in the world. The scam changes, but ultimately they're preying on the good will of people" (quoted in Simmons, 2008).

The Scope of Cyber Crime. Law enforcement officials have struggled to identify, arrest, and prosecute these tech-savvy offenders, even as sociologists have sought to get to the root of cyber crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) created a special cyber division in 2002 to “address cyber crime in a coordinated and cohesive manner (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2013) with cyber squads in each of its fifty-six field offices, “cyber action teams” that travel worldwide to address cyber attacks, and nationwide computer task forces. The field of cyber crime has spawned the field of cyber criminology, defined as "the study of causation of crimes that occur in the cyber space and its impact in the physical space" (Jaishankar, 2007, p. 1).

The scope of cyber crime remains staggering, and it continues to grow. Between the years 2019-20211, cyber crime increased by 121%. In 2023, the cost of cyber crime is expected to reach $8 trillion, growing to $10.5 trillion by 2025. The most prevalent form of gaining unauthorized access to business networks is through phishing. These schemes typically involve schemes to trick users into divulging login information. Email addresses have been especially targeted as ways to gain this access. The Covid-19 pandemic also brought about a surge in cybercrime. In 2021 a reported 320,000 users were reportedly victimized by phishing attacks. Businesses, on average, lost $4.35 million resulting from data breaches. The cost to a business of a single data breach was estimated at over $21,000 per incident. Another negative trend is the employment of ransomware. This is the practice of gaining access to the network of an organization that manages critical infrastructure. These include targets such as hospitals or local governments. After gaining access to sensitive material, hackers will make the data inaccessible through its encryption. Victims are pressured to pay a ransom to obtain the release code to regain their proprietary data.

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted a large increase in online attacks originating from within Russia. On the positive side, it has also spurred the development of better security measures and international cooperative efforts. When Russia began its first operations against Ukraine in mid-2010, its cyber operations were reported to be effective against key infrastructure such as electrical transmission. Because of the experience accrued in countering these initial attacks, the Ukrainian response was more effective come 2022. Ukraine reportedly responded by analyzing the intense Russian cyber tactics on its infrastructure and disseminating best practices to the international community. This, in turn, has swung the momentum to greater cooperative efforts among those resisting Russian territorial ambitions.

As more and more people have used the Internet to do their shopping, communicating, banking, and bill paying, they have become targets for cyber criminals. There are common-sense steps that can prevent or reduce having one's financial information stolen online, as well as to avoid other scams and threats, but cyber crime in these areas persists largely due to a lack of consumer education.

Some varieties of cyber crime, such as hacktivism, are ostensibly motivated by noble intentions, such as protest against perceived abuses by governments and corporations. Often these attacks involve posting comments on official government websites and are not motivated by a desire for monetary gain. However, other forms of cyber crime have a much more violent intent. These include cyber stalking, cybe rbullying, and cyber terrorism.

Cyber Crime & Society. While the economic impact of cyber crime is beyond dispute, rather less attention has been given to the social implications of cyber crime. Psychologists and psychiatrists can help victims cope with the fallout from identity theft, sexual abuse, or financial ruin, whereas sociologists are well-positioned to look at the broader social impacts and explanations of cyber crime.

Cyber crime attacks the very foundations of modern, technological societies, bound up as they are with the rapid flow of computer data facilitated by the Internet. At the most basic level, cyber criminals often take advantage of technologically unsophisticated individuals who nonetheless find themselves in a world where the Internet plays an increasingly central role in both community and private life. Cyber crime depends, at this level, on the ability of those who are more technologically sophisticated to use that knowledge to trick others into surrendering vital information, such as their bank account information or Social Security number. While it is possible in some situations for the victim of cyber crime to restore stolen money or even their personal online identity, the event often leaves the victim traumatized and deeply suspicious of the Internet and other trappings of modern life. In this way the cyber criminal deprives his or her victim of many of the conveniences of today's information economy.

Experts in cyber crime have noted that its impact occurs on multiple levels. First, on a purely economic level, cyber crime involves the theft of millions, and in some instances billions, of dollars every year. In addition, cyber crime requires individuals and institutions to take on the added cost of security software and other means by which to frustrate the cyber criminals.

Second, on a broader cultural level, cyber crime helps to sour general perceptions about the Internet in particular and new technology in general. Paradoxically, it can also make those who have been victims of one type of cyber crime more vulnerable to other types of cyber crime because of their lack of awareness of new and evolving cyber crime methods.

Third, and perhaps most alarming of all, cyber crime creates traumatized individuals who are less able to cope with the demands of life. Whether one is the victim of identity theft, a credit card scam, or cyberbullying, and regardless of whether restitution is made, the effects of cyber crime can impact the psyche as much as any crime.

Applications

Cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can best be described as the extension of physical bullying in cyberspace. However, the individual often is not physically assaulted but rather psychologically harassed. Perhaps not surprisingly, cyberbullying most often occurs between teenagers and other young adults. According to a 2011 Pew Research study, 88 percent of teenagers surveyed reported witnessing cruelty from one individual to another on a social networking site. The bullying was through online posts, text messages, email messages, or instant messages (Liebowitz, 2011). In 2017, the Pew Research Center reported that by that point, 41 percent of American adults had been directly subjected to online harassment while 66 percent had witnessed harassment of others online (Duggan, 2017).

Cyber bullying is defined as the activity by which an individual or group of individuals is targeted for insulting, offensive, or threatening messages sent through Internet-enabled equipment such as computers or hand-held devices like mobile phones or tablets. According to cyberspace expert Parry Aftab, "Cyber-bullying is when one child or teen targets another for embarrassment, humiliation, fear, blackmail. Something designed to hurt the other using an interactive technology. That's made a big difference because kids have learned that they can use the internet as a weapon" (quoted in "Battling the online bullies," 2008). Sometimes cyberbullying continues and extends a fight or disagreement that takes place at school, at a party, or in some other social situation.

In the opinion of many victims and experts, cyber bullying is worse than in-person bullying because the perpetrators can hide behind a cloak of anonymity provided by the Internet. Two victims of cyber bullying conveyed the harshness of the tactic:

"It's more harsh over the Internet because they don't have to see your reaction when they say those mean words to your face. So over the Internet you're more likely to say the meanest possible things you can say, and then you don't even regret it," said cyber-bully victim Abby.

"I would get messages on IM [Instant Messenger] and they would be 'you're really mean' or 'you're ugly', until I just couldn't take it anymore," says Ralph who was also a victim of cyber-bullying (quoted in "Battling the online bullies," 2008).

A disturbing extension of cyberb ullying occurs when physical assaults, such as rapes or beatings, are posted online. The goal is to show the power and control of the perpetrators over the victim or victims, as well as to shame and humiliate them. A related practice is publishing photos, phone numbers, and other personal information about the cyberbullying victim on certain websites.

The trauma felt by victims of cyberbullying is very real, and it often exacerbates preexisting insecurities felt by young people going through adolescence. There have been several reported incidents of a cyberbullying victim committing suicide after suffering unrelenting attacks (Pokin, 2007), including Lakeland, Florida, teen Rebecca Sedwick, who committed suicide in September 2013 after being harassed for months through online message boards and texts (Stanglin & Welch, 2013).

Given the proliferation of Web-enabled devices, parents, child advocates, politicians, and law enforcement officials are uncertain about how to reduce instances of cyberbullying. Some proposed solutions include more parental involvement in their child's online activities, such as texting and instant messaging, while others suggest that positive peer pressure is the best long-term method for reducing cyberbullying.

Cyberpornography. Although there are no universal laws regulating pornography on the Internet, individual nations have laws regulating the possession and distribution of pornographic materials. Most countries have laws regarding child pornography, and groups such as Interpol and the US Department of Justice often coordinate to apprehend and prosecute Internet child pornographers. Child pornography on the Internet generally refers to images and videos of individuals under the age of eighteen. While courts in the United States and Europe have found adult pornography on the Internet to fall within legal boundaries, there is a virtually unanimous legal, moral, psychological, and social consensus that children are not to be involved in the global sex industry.

Just as the rise of the Internet facilitated a new and expansive type of bullying, so too has it led to a proliferation of child pornography. Various websites have become repositories of sexually explicit pictures of children, where the images are bought and sold (Simons, 1998).

There is evidence that the rise of cyberpornography has led to increased instances of child abuse in the world ("Internet porn," 2004). Countries like Great Britain have been particularly impacted:

Children's charity NCH—formerly National Children's Homes—said there was evidence that the 1,500 percent rise in child pornography cases since 1988 would be reflected in more children being abused to produce the pictures.

"The scale of the problem has changed beyond recognition in just over a decade," said NCH's Internet consultant John Carr. The increased demand has made child pornography into big business and the consequences for children in all parts of the world are horrifying" ("Internet porn," 2004, par. 1-3).

A newer form of cyberpornography on the Internet involves online communities such as Second Life, where avatars, or three-dimensional representations of computer users, interact with one another in realistic online environments. Prosecutors have brought charges against individuals in Second Life who bought virtual sex with other Second Life users represented as children. In some countries, such as Germany, virtual child pornography is illegal, while the law is much less clear elsewhere (Johnston, 2007).

Viewpoints

Stopping Cyber Crime. In his 1995 essay, Gene Stephens offered what one might call a traditionally libertarian way to combat cyber crime that fits well with the open ethos of cyberspace: "the only real help is… conscience and personal values, the belief that theft, deception, and invasion of privacy are simply unacceptable" (quoted in Stephens, 2008, p. 2).

Given the massive proliferation of cyber crime since 1995, Stephens began in 2008 to see things differently and argued that stopping cyber crime will depend largely on two factors: a more secure Internet infrastructure, redesigned with security foremost in mind; and coordinated, global policing of cyberspace to back up other security methods such as biometrics.

One prediction Stephens made is for a more secure, second generation Internet:

Stephens also argued that fighting cyber crime involves tackling a larger and more fundamental issue: How can one police an area, such as cyberspace, that very obviously no one person owns and has jurisdiction over? The answer, he argues, is voluntary, multinational policing, with the price of failure being too great to ignore:

The exponentially improving capabilities of emerging Web technologies spotlights the long-ignored issues of who owns the World Wide Web, who manages it, and who has jurisdiction over it. The answer now is: Nobody! Can the world's most powerful socio-politico-economic network continue to operate almost at random, open to all, and thus be excessively vulnerable to cyber criminals and terrorists alike? Yet any attempt to restrict or police the Web can be expected to be met by extreme resistance from a plethora of users for a variety of reasons, many contradictory., … Biometrics and more-advanced systems of ID will need to be perfected to protect users and the network. In addition, multinational cyber crime units will be required to catch those preying on users worldwide, as Web surfers in Arlington, Virginia, and Victoria, British Columbia, may be victims of cyberscams perpetrated in Cairo or Budapest. Coordination and cooperation will be keys to making the Internet a safer place to travel and conduct business (Stephens, 2008, p. 3).

Although the task is daunting, governments worldwide are taking steps. In 2012, the European Union (EU) announced the establishment of a cyber crime centre aimed at stopping identity thieves and other online criminals (EurActiv, 2012). The policy-making arm of the EU, the European Commission, proposed mandatory jail time for online crimes (Morris, 2012), and the cyber crime centre was expected to staff fifty-five personnel with an annual budget of €3.6 billion.

Can one be optimistic about the containment of cyber crime? If history is any judge, the same Internet technology that empowers criminals to evade the law can enable law enforcement to defend the law.

Terms & Concepts

Botnet: A collection of computers that have been infected with software by computer hackers to force those computers to commit crimes, such as sending out computer viruses or unsolicited email (spam).

Computer Virus: A piece of rogue computer code that, when allowed to operate on a computer, causes the computer to malfunction, often leading to the loss or compromising of sensitive electronic data such as banking information or Social Security numbers.

Cyber Crime: An umbrella term for the various crimes committed using the World Wide Web.

Cyberbullying: The use of the Internet and other Web-enabled mobile technologies to harass and insult others, sometimes leading to or resulting from in-person confrontations.

Cyberstalking: The use of the Internet and other Web-enabled mobile technologies to track the movements of another individual, often with the intent of doing that person harm.

Cyberterrorism: The use of the Internet and other Web-enabled mobile technologies to plan terrorist activities.

Cyberpornography: The use of the Internet to distribute and solicit sexually explicit images and videos. The laws of one’s country dictate the legality of possessing or distributing pornography.

Denial of Service Attack: A method by which computer hackers send a swarm of data to a certain website to overwhelm its servers and prevent the company for transacting normal business online.

Hacktivism: A term used to describe electronic attacks by computer attackers on certain business or electronic websites, with the aim of spreading their message about the organization through online graffiti.

Identity Theft: The theft of an individual's personally identifying information, such as their Social Security number, through electronic means, including email.

Information Society: A term used to describe the economies in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world, based as they are on the flow of information via the Internet.

Internet: The global electronic communications infrastructure that facilitates the rapid flow of data between computers and other Web-enabled devices around the world.

Malware: A term used to describe computer software created for nefarious purposes, such as turning computers into botnets or causing them to crash.

Spam: A term used to describe unsolicited email.

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Suggested Reading

Gray, D., Citron, D. K., & Rinehart, L. C. (2013). Fighting cybercrime after United States v. Jones. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 103, 745–801. Retrieved December 31, 2014, from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=89862802.

Levi, M. (2017). . Assessing the trends, scale and nature of economic cybercrimes: Overview and issuesCrime, Law & Social Change, 67(1), 3–20. Retrieved March 6, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=120927472&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Litwiller, B., & Brausch, A. (2013). Cyber bullying and physical bullying in adolescent suicide: The role of violent behavior and substance use. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 42, 675–684. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=86976910.

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Weimann, G. (2011). Cyber-fatwas and terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 34, 765–781. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=66645666.

Williams, M. (2006). Virtually criminal: Crime, deviance and regulation online. London, UK: Routledge.